Browse From the Linux Terminal with W3M

If you are a Linux user and like to work with the terminal and want to experience how stuff works in terminal, there is a new thing for you people. Now you can browse your www web pages through your Linux terminals. But how?

This can be done by using W3M. W3M is terminal based web browser for Linux. It includes support for images, tabs, tables, frames and other features.

Now, how to use this? It's simple. You have to just install W3M as it is not included by default on most Linux distributions. You can install it by typing the following command:-

 

      sudo apt-get install w3m

And if you want inline image support then you have to install w3m-img package. For that you have to append this package name with the  above command mentioned:-

     sudo apt-get install w3m w3m-img

Now, after installing the w3m packages, you can browse through the terminal by typing the command:-

     w3m google.com

After that you can see the Google home page in your terminal as shown in below figure.

         

                                                            Fig:1

You can use the arrow keys to move the cursor around or click at the desired location to move the cursor there. If you want to type in a text box, select the text box with the cursor and press Enter before typing your text, because W3M treats every keystroke as commands if you just start typing. Load a hyperlink by selecting it with your cursor and press Enter.

You can see the below images of browsing pages through your terminals.

                     

Fig:2 

                                                            Fig:3

And if you want image support then you have to use a different terminal like xterm because GNOME terminals do not support displaying an image.

                                                                              Fig:4               

                                    

And you can also use this terminal in a same manner.

There are many features provided by W3M like it supports multiple tabs by clicking Shift-T and also switching from one tab to another by selecting the tab with the cursor or you can use { and } also.

For going back you can use Shift-B.

Now, here is an image of my facebook page that I have browsed from the xterm terminal with the image support.

                                                          Fig:5

           

                                                          Fig:6

You can do more with this. And id if you want to learn more about this W3M, you can press Shift-H to view W3M's help page or you can view the manual from the W3M's website or you can just type in your terminal man w3m.